A former South Burlington high school student who admitted making threats against fellow students and teachers apologized Tuesday, telling a judge recent news reports of the school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people nearly brought him to tears. “It almost made me cry,” Josiah Leach, 19, said during his sentencing hearing in federal court in Rutland. “I just can’t believe that 17 people died.” Judge Geoffrey Crawford sentenced Leach on Monday to five years of probation, a sentence jointly recommended by prosecutors and Leach’s attorney. Leach said that seeing the recent news reports helped him realize why others are...

The chief executive officer of a Vermont energy company wants to become the first transgender governor in American history. WPTZ-TV reports Vermont Electric Cooperative CEO Christine Hallquist is formally entering the race for governor of her state. Vermonters are due to vote on a governor this year, with Republican Gov. Phil Scott as incumbent. Hallquist says she plans to leave her post at the electric utility company, which is the second largest in Vermont. She plans to resign after a Tuesday board meeting. Hallquist said last month she was thinking about seeking the Democratic nomination for governor. The 61 year...

VIDEO AT LINK Putin Warns International Observers Being Sent Away From US Polling Stations As Globalists Prepare To Steal The Final Election From America In the outstanding video below which is now seeing some attention across the alternative media but will probably never be touched upon by most of the mainstream media, Russian President Vladimir Putin completely unloads upon Fareed Zakaria of CNN fame while telling him, among many other things, that AT LEAST two US elections have already been stolen, a warning to Donald Trump of what may be coming with the entire 'new world order' now on the...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday blasted President Trump for not taking action to protect the U.S. from Russian meddling in future elections, saying "that we don’t have a president speaking out on this issue is a horror show." His comments follow an indictment released Friday by special counsel Robert Mueller outlining multiple actors who played a role in extensive Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. "We have got to bring Democrats and Republicans together despite the president to go forward to protect the integrity of American democracy,” Sanders said on NBC's “Meet The Press.”

A West Virginia bill that would end taxpayer funding for abortions in the state is slated for a public hearing Monday in the state House. West Virginia is one of 17 states that funds elective abortions for low-income women through Medicaid. State House Bill 4012 would end taxpayer funding for abortions except when medically necessary to save the mother’s life, the AP reports. Since 1977, state taxpayers have been forced to pay millions of dollars for tens of thousands unborn babies’ abortion deaths, according to West Virginians for Life. “The federal government limits tax funding of abortions to cases of...

A high school in Vermont's capital raised a Black Lives Matter flag Thursday morning in honor of Black History Month. Students at Montpelier High School, where 18 of 350 students are black, took turns raising the flag in a ceremony attended by hundreds of students, staff and community members. The decision to fly the flag had drawn criticism from Republican state legislator Thomas Terenzini, who told WPTZ this week that the school was setting "a bad example."

(Screen Capture) (CNSNews.com) - The American Civil Liberties Union -- note the word "American" in its title -- complained Tuesday night about President Trump's repeated use of the word "America" in his State of the Union speech. In a written response to Trump's speech, Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, said: Tonight, President Trump said the word ‘America’ more than 80 times in his speech. Yet, after a divisive first year, we hear and feel how exclusionary that ‘America’ is, with policies that have harmed so many vulnerable American communities. The ACLU stands ready to protect these communities,...

The economy is booming, the tax reform package has spurred over 250 companies to dole out bonuses to some three million workers, more employee investments are coming, more jobs are projected to be created, and charitable donations are expected to increase from companies thanks to Trumpâ€™s tax bill. Appleâ€™s repatriation of $250 billion, part of their $350 billion investments back into America over a five-year period is projected to create 20,000 jobs in the process. We've reached a new era, one of economic prosperity, which is what President Trump emphasized during the State of the Union Tuesday.President Trump spoke of...

With many of them clad in black, the Democrats who did show up to President Trumpâ€™s first State of the Union address Tuesday night were not happy about it. In fact, they seemed so focused on opposing everything he said they couldnâ€™t even bring themselves to applaud things that are normally considered bipartisan.They set the tone for their behavior that evening right away, by refusing to stand to greet Trump and many even first lady Melania Trump.The resistance continued, with most Democrats also refusing to applaud:- job creation- higher wages- lower African American and Hispanic unemployment rates- bonuses for employees-...

They scowled as President Trump touted soaring jobs numbers, sat stone-faced when he honored veterans, and one even walked out after becoming triggered by a patriotic chant. Democrats at President Trump's first State of the Union, after a year of partisan rancor, showed they were in no mood to accept his call for bipartisanship. "Why are @TheDemocrats not applauding job growth, higher wages and the drop in Latino and African-American unemployment?" pollster Frank Luntz asked in a tweet. "I thought economic success is good for everyone regardless of party." Rep. Luis Gutierrez walked out after chants of "USA, USA!" erupted...

Rep. Joe Kennedy III addressed DACA recipients in Spanish during his response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Unfortunately for him, the liberal base may have found his attempts to be more offensive than they were honorable. People pointed out his lack of fluency and the obvious attempt to pander to immigrants. Multiple people noted that it could be “condescending” to assume that DACA recipients do not speak English and need to be addressed in Spanish. “News alert: dreamers speak more English than Spanish,” Father Jonathan Morris tweeted. “They came here as kids.”

It is difficult to imagine a more galling demonstration of incivility than the Democrats in the room for Trump's SOTU speech. They scowled, frowned, and sat on their hands throughout the speech. They could hardly be bothered to acknowledge the heroes in the audience when they were introduced. While the Dems brought illegal immigrants, Trump invited actual paragons of American character and the families of victims of illegal immigrant crimes, as well as a victim of North Korea. It was embarrassing, like watching the anti-Semites in the UN stomp out of the room when Benjamin Netanyahu speaks. How is it any...

Self-identified "national socialist" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) couldn't let Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) speak for him in the Democratic response to Donald Trump's first State of the Union address. But, in a perfect metaphor for his economic system, Sanders' own response experienced "technical difficulties." For almost a full three minutes, Sanders' response was down, and the screen read, "We will be back momentarily!" "Well, as they say, technology is great when it works, so if you're still with us, we appreciate it very much," the socialist senator said when the video started again. So long as Sanders' team doesn't...

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton was captured losing her cool Thursday when confronted by a Greenpeace activist about the millions of dollars in direct and indirect donations she receives from the fossil fuel industry. “Regarding climate change, can we have your word that you’ll reject fossil fuel money in the future for your campaign?” Greenpeace “democracy organizer” Eva Resnick-Day asked. “I don’t have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies,” Clinton claimed, before bizarrely blaming her surging opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who had nothing to do with the question. “I am so sick, I am so sick...

A Vermont high school will fly a Black Lives Matter flag to celebrate Black History Month in February, according to a Wednesday announcement.Montpelier High School announced officials made the decision after being approached by the school’s Racial Justice Alliance, reported The Burlington Free Press.“Vermont has a long history of being at the forefront of civil rights movements,” said the high school in a news release obtained by Burlington Free Press. “Our state was the first to abolish slavery in its constitution, and the first to enroll and graduate a black student, who subsequently served in the state legislature. The School...

Gov. Phil Scott has signed Vermont's marijuana legalization bill into law. A Scott administration official tells WCAX the governor signed the bill shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. Scott is now the first governor in the country to sign marijuana legalization into law. Eight other states legalized marijuana through public referendums. In a letter to lawmakers, Scott said he signed the bill, H.511, with "mixed emotions." The bill allows Vermonters over the age of 21 to have an ounce of weed and to grow a few plants. Once signed, the new law goes into effect July 1.

Immigration and Customs and Enforcement raided a Days Inn hotel in Colchester last Thursday in the first sweep of migrant workers in Vermont. ICE detained 14 construction workers, according to Will Lambek of Migrant Justice, a group that supports undocumented workers. The raid was conducted at 5 a.m. on Jan. 18. Lambek said other construction workers who were not included in the sweep notified Migrant Justice. The migrants were working for a contracting firm in the area. Lambek did not release information about the company for fear of jeopardizing other workers. Lambek said the raid “was out of scale” for...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that the United States would never recover from the “stain” of deporting young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, who are often called "Dreamers." During a Sunday show interview, Sanders said their deportations would be “one of the ugliest stains” in American history. “If we allow Trump to get away with what he did, and that is repeal the executive order on DACA, and if these 800,000 people, young people, are subjected to deportation, this will be one of the ugliest stains in the history of the United States,” Sanders told CNN’s...